Ever since the character of Ahsoka Tano was introduced, fans have wondered what Ahsoka would look like in live-action. Creating live-action characters out of cartoons is a challenge of its own, but the recent “Mando-verse” series of Star Wars shows reveals that it can be done.
Related Article: The Problem with Converting Animated Characters to Live-Action
With Ahsoka now fully introduced to the broader audience via The Mandalorian, it was only a matter of time before Disney cashed in on this popular character. After all, many of the younger Star Wars fans grew up watching The Clone Wars and identified with her. This has understandably left a large amount of both hype and concern within the Star Wars community about how this series was going to turn out.
For me, my concern is how well they can transition into live action as most of these characters are played by new actors.
The other main concern I also held was creator Dave Filloni being the sole writer of the series. Ideally, on a show of this scale, there should be at least a few writers to ensure the dialogue and the pacing. There is a risk in putting all story beats made by one person; a writer’s strength in storytelling doesn’t always come with a talent for engaging dialogue, for example.
Verdict
I, for one, have mixed feelings for this show. I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of the series – however, a rushed conclusion has prevented me from calling this show great.
If I were to rank it with the other live-action Star Wars shows – it’s better than Kenobi and Boba Fett, but not groundbreaking like the Andor or The Mandalorian (well, at least the first two seasons…).
It is far from terrible, but it had several plot elements that kept me from rating it higher than a 7/10.
Related Article: Kenobi – An Uncivilized Review
However, a large part of this depends on whether you are a fan of the animated shows for which this show is a continuation. This may appeal to fans who didn’t watch the animated projects. However, as someone who’s been following the animated shows, It mostly delivered what I was expecting but we should have gotten more.
Setting – aka “Live-Action ‘Rebels’ season 5”
Set roughly 12-15 years after the end of Star Wars: Rebels, Ahsoka locates a map that could be a potential route to finding Ezra Bridger, whom she promised to find when she returned to the world, hoping to decipher with the help of her former apprentice Sabine Wren.
This information is also being sought by newly freed Nightsister Morgen Elsbeth and her mercenaries, renegade Jedi Baylan Skoll and his disciple Shin Hati.
All this as tensions have run high as the possible return of the Empire’s most feared commander has resurfaced Grand Admiral Thrawn. With Thrawn, the remaining imperial warlords may have the leadership to take over the galaxy once again. as well as insight into the slow-burning beureaucracy of the New Republic.
The major element that may be divisive to some viewers is overreliance on characters and stories from the animated. The problem is that fans of Rebels and The Clone Wars are a relatively new audience as most casual fans don’t see the need to watch cartoons. It drives the TCW/Rebels fans to force their parents to watch them, with the only driving force being that “it’s canon”.
Character Analysis
Ahsoka Herself
As for the title character herself, the take they give her is fascinating in hindsight when you look at her journey through the years.
Some have criticized Rosario Dawson’s acting for being too unemotional and stoic “nothing like the character from Clone Wars” However those same people forget the effects the years have put on her. As a child, she was taught they were “peacekeepers and not soldiers,” as Mace Windu put it.
Remember that Ahsoka was barely in her teens when she was thrown into the Clone Wars. Not only that, but padawans have the privilege/burden of leading armies. These responsibilities have put so much pressure on a child. Indeed there have been several instances throughout the clonewars where she led squads to their deaths.
Now in this timeline, Ahsoka is a far cry from the quick-witted and energetic girl we remember. Now she is distant even cold at times which some might take as being too unemotional. However, I believe it’s meant to reflect someone who had been fighting and hiding nonstop for the past 30 years. She’s become numb to life around her, and it has often been hard for her to feel real joy again, Ironically becoming the Jedi she rebelled against all those years ago.
Her main arc is about reconciling with the legacy of Anakin, her mentor, who became one of the galaxy’s most feared tyrants.
It comes to a head in the 5th episode, where we see Ahsoka in young form comuning with a likely ghost of Anakin. The actual lesson in this sequence has confused some audiences including myself but my interpretation is her reflecting how the Clone Wars shaped her view of being a warrior contrary to her own beliefs, fighting was the only way to survive.
Her “I choose to live” meant she would never become the monster Anakin became. A fact this hits all the more when you watch the season 2 finale of Rebels when she fought Vader face-to-face.
The most telling was when she was listening to Anakin’s last recordings “though the hair and outfit didn’t match.” While she mentioned Anakin in terms of regret and the sham of his legacy in the past, this time she embraces it. Ahsoka no longer looks back at Anakin with any pain or regret.
It was this symbolism in embracing this legacy that she changes her outfit to “Ahsoka the White” (Filoni laying thick on the Gandalf comparisons)
Her development, for the most part, was handled well. The story and conflicts allow us to see a side of Ahsoka we haven’t seen before – a runaway who’s been trying to bury that past but has now come to accept and embrace it. However, a few choice words bring the show down some choice words said at the end that will get to in the next article.
Returning Characters
There are a lot of animated characters that make both cameos and recurring roles in this season. It is fascinating how many of them return as their original actors, with some exceptions.
Huyang and Other Fan-Favorites
First to mention is Huyang, the Jedi training droid/librarian once again voiced by David Tennant. This character was first introduced way back in Clone Wars season 5, working with Ahsoka to teach new younglings how to build their lightsabers. Huyang provides a fascinating insight because his untampered memory recalls the history of not just the Jedi but indeed the whole galaxy. It’s always nice to see one-off characters in one show play a major role in another.
It’s also nice to have Clancy Brown who voiced Lothal governor Ryder in Rebels return to the role, thats twice he did a cameo in the Mando timeline. Not to mention the 4th Star Wars character he has played, so far.
Most of the returning characters however obviously had to be recast as voice acting is not the same as screen/stage acting.
Hera Syndulla
One Character I was curious to see in live-action was my favorite character from Rebels, Hera Syndulla, played this time by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Admitingly her voice is different from Venesa Marshall’s animated counterpart, but overall Winstead nailed her personality and demeanor.
It’s interesting to see how far Hera evolved from a skilled pilot to a general of the new republic army. In addition, she has become either the best or worst mother everi taking her son Jacen everywhere she goes – no matter how many people may be shooting at her at the time.
On top of that, Hera struggles not just with imperial remnants but also with republic bureaucracy, as this isn’t like her rebellion days where she could come and go where she pleased. Now there is a chain of command and government oversight, which can halt action, especially when missions get personal.
Ezra Bridger
Perhaps the best cast of the new ghost crew is Eman Esfandi as live-action Ezra Bridger. His humor, and mannerisms but also became more of a badass just by using the force itself in combat. I also liked his and Sabine’s reunion in that it treated them like old high school friends and dismissed that Ezra was crushing on Sabine back in Rebels. Some relationships are best at just sticking to friends. In a way, Ezra in this show has come full circle, which is impressive as he was my least favorite character in Rebels (still kinda is).
The Rogue’s Gallery
Star Wars is a franchise that is just as often defined by its villains as well as its heroes, and this show has several.
Thrawn
It’s impossible not to talk about the live-action debut of one of the most famous villains from the expanded universe, Grand Admiral Thrawn. This was a popular character from the acclaimed Heir to the Empire novels by Timothy Zahn. He was renowned as one of the greeted tacticians in the empire. A sinister cross between Sherlock Holmes and Chester Nimitz – a master tactician who studies his opponent thoroughly to discover and exploit their weaknesses.
His physical appearance may throw hardcore fans of the book as he’s aged somewhat compared to other illustrations. However, it’s important to keep in mind he and his crew on the Chimera were isolated for the past decade. You are not gonna look the same being trapped in a ship that long. What makes Thrawn work, and this is true for every villain, is the voice, and hearing Lars Mikkelsen again, this time in the flesh, makes this all the more chilling.
Some fans have criticized Thrawn’s portrayal because they expected more scenes of him destroying fleets like his book counterpart. But it is important to remember that his goal was never to defeat the Jedi intruders but to escape the planet. Thrawn only has maybe a few hundred personnel and a handful of functional vehicles; he wasn’t going to waste all his limited resources finding such an OP target. I agree, however, that next season, we should be given a chance to demonstrate Thrawn’s tactical genius and not just look at a screen monologing.
Baylan Skoll
However, the best character in this is easily Baylan Skoll. In every scene he’s in there is a mystery and a gravitas in his performance by the late Ray Stevenson who also voiced the Mandalorian Gar Saxon in the Rebels series.
Baylan is a kind of force wielder we haven’t seen onscreen before, A Dark Jedi whose ideals are akin to being an anarchist who wants to stop the cycle of war and power. As to how he acheves it however is still up in the air and has unfortunate timing considering Ray Stevenson’s tragic passing. Should the character make a return it would be best to simply recast him as his character and story are way to be wasted.
Shin Hati
As for Baylen’s apprentice Shin Hati so far I don’t have much to say she’s mostly just portrayed as a skilled prodigy of Baylen I do buy her more as a dangerous person compared to someone like Reva. Those eyes and the way she stares make Shin look so intimidating.
Action
Some of the action is somewhat hit-and-miss. Often action scenes work best when there’s a lot of tension and atmosphere in the scene. My favorite was Ahsoka and Baylen’s first fight, where they exchanged few but meaningful words before sizing each other up.
Plus, I love that the rematch between Ahsoka and Elsbeth became a Japanese Katana vs Chinese Dao fight.
However, it does deliver some silly moments, like one scene where our three heroes just stand around flailing their lightsabers like they were in the Knights of the Old Republic games. What also frustrates me is that in these new shows, people aren’t cutting people up onscreen as they did in the pre-Disbney era. Lightsabers don’t cause people to bleed out. You do know that, right?
Even when we see zombies, there’s hardly any delimbing or decapitations which are what lightsabers are supposed to do.
Music and Credits
Normally I don’t talk about the music in these new Star Wars shows, but here I have to give a show out to Kevin Kiner For bringing such a majestic soundtrack.
This makes me want to see the end credits, seeing what appears to be a map of the Galaxy. The only other time I’ve stayed during an end-credits was during the Mandolorian. This time, it’s solely the melody that makes me want to listen to it repeatedly. It is a perfect blend of Ahsoka and Sabine’s theme that flows seamlessly into one elegant score.
There are also some Japanese-inspired strings spread during the lightsaber combat sequence which makes sense as this was made with a more samurai field compared to Mando which was Western. 2 completely different genres that always seem to mirror each other.
Cautious Optimism
This was a good reintroduction to its characters from rebels and certainly makes me want to see what happens next. However, despite the overreliance on lore from the animated shows at the same time I can’t think of any other way they can continue this story.
I also love the fact that this is the first show to feature a non-human in a leading role. Far too often in Star Wars and indeed many SciFi alien characters only played supporting roles because makeup and CGI are expensive. It is also true we, as a human audience, often connect more to human characters. But in a galaxy as diverse as Star Wars, focusing on alien characters is necessary for worldbuilding. Ahsoka is meant to reflect the diversity of the galaxy, not just different skin-toned humans, and Lucasfilm pats themselves on the back for being “progressive.”
At its fundamental core, Ahsoka is a love letter to fans like me who have followed the animated shows from the very beginning. For the longest time, followers like me have been a neish but devoted audience. Now it is coming to a point where those different branches are coming together significantly.
That said I’m very concerned about where this storyline’s future is going. At the time this is written, there’s no official word for a season two. Even if it’s greenlit now, it would take a year and a half before we see it. Furthermore, The untimely passing of Rey Stevenson may push Lucasfilm to change things going forward due to their reluctance to recast prominent characters.
Franchise fatigue I feel has also been waning down fans as it has been reported that viewership has not matched other projects in the past. Those numbers could have been higher however if not for some rather controversial choices the subject of which is the topic of our next article.
